ROCKTON  Willowbrook traveled a long way to show just how far its football program has come in a short time.

The 14th-seeded Warriors, who were winless last season, still had legitimate hopes of going even further when they trailed by just 3 points at halftime in their Class 7A playoff opener at third-seeded Hononegah late Saturday afternoon.

But the Indians (9-1) rebounded from an error-filled first half and scored on all four of their full second-half possessions in a 39-16 victory, which ended the remarkable turnaround season for Willowbrook (6-4).

If we come out and play we can beat anybody we play, Willowbrook do-it-all senior quarterback Dom Battaglia said of his teams mindset entering the game. I thought we were going to win at every point.

Even though the Warriors were a field goal from tying the game at the break, they also knew they didnt take advantage of 4 recovered fumbles  two by Battaglia and one each by Joe Galinsky and Robert Enescu  and an interception by Nick Kilianek. A 38-yard field goal in the first quarter by Paul Yacoub put them, ahead and 3-yard touchdown run by senior Brandon Smith cut their deficit to 13-10 with 9:35 left in the half.

We felt great, but we also knew we should have had more points than we did on the board, Battaglia said after a pair of stalled trips into Hononegah territory at the end of the half.

We had opportunities and we squandered some opportunities, said Willowbrook coach Nick Hildreth, whose team was penalized 11 times for 81 yards in the first half. We didnt finish a couple of drives early, but we put ourselves in position to win the football game.

Hononegah, which hosts No. 6 Lake Zurich next week, started the half by forcing a three-and-out and touchdown runs of 6 yards by Alex Martin and 3 yards by Jake Wilson made it 26-10 with 1:02 left in the third.

We just talked about eliminating penalties, hanging on to the ball and playing the way we know we can play, said Hononegah coach Tim Sughroue after his team finished with 449 total yards.

Willowbrook got within 26-16 with 8:29 left when Battaglia scrambled and found Jeremy Kucik in the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 3.

But two plays later Martin scored from 51 yards. Joey Welsh added a 28-yard touchdown pass to Wilson at 3:12 to get Hononegah thinking about next week and Willowbrook looking toward a brighter future.

Ever since our freshman year we wanted to get to the playoffs as seniors and we got it done, Battaglia said of the Warriors first postseason trip since 2007.

They put us back where we want to be, Hildreth said. The things this senior group has done for the program cant be measured.